Indiana is holding elections, including for municipal offices, on May 2, 2023. A number of candidates running in these elections completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. These survey responses allow voters to hear directly from candidates about what motivates them to run for office.
Below is a selection of responses from the candidates who filled out the survey as of March 27. To read each candidate’s full responses, click their name at the bottom of the article.
Andy Nielsen (D) is running for Indianapolis City Council District 14 and the primary election is on May 2. Here’s how Nielsen responded to the question: Who are you? Tell us about yourself.
“I’m Andy Nielsen and I am running for Indianapolis City-County Council District 14 on the Eastside of Indianapolis in the 2023 municipal elections. I am a proud Democrat, a career public servant, an anti-poverty advocate, and a community leader. I have more than a decade of experience working in government, constituent services, and advocacy to make sure our government and laws are working better for people, and I plan to make it my full-time job to make sure that happens for the Eastside.”
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz (R) is running for mayor of Indianapolis and the primary election is on May 2. Here’s how Shabazz responded to the question: Who are you? Tell us about yourself.
“Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is an attorney, award-winning political writer, and commentator. He has been covering and writing about state and local government in Indiana since 2004 and, before that, in Illinois—for nearly 30 years…He hosts the ‘Abdul at Large’ talk show on WIBC-FM 93.1. He writes opinion pieces for various news publications across the state, including the Indianapolis Business Journal and the Statehouse File. He’s a frequent [panelist] and contributor to Fox 59’s IN Focus and ‘Inside Indiana Business.’…Abdul is also licensed to practice law in Indiana and Illinois. And he holds teaching positions at the University of Indianapolis and Ivy Tech Community College.”
If you’re an Indiana candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. The survey contains over 30 questions, and you can choose the ones you feel will best represent your views to voters. If you complete the survey, a box with your answers will display on your Ballotpedia profile. Your responses will also populate the information that appears in our mobile app, My Vote Ballotpedia.
A yearslong struggle between the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) came to an end on March 15, 2023. Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced in a letter he was appointing a Board of Managers to replace the Houston Independent School District’s (HISD) elected Board of Trustees. Morath cited a number of reasons for the move, including that “one of the district’s campuses received unacceptable academic accountability ratings for five consecutive years.”
Morath, whom Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appointed to oversee the Texas Education Agency in 2015, first signaled his intent to remove the HISD Board of Trustees on Nov. 6, 2019. Morath notified the district of his decision to replace the elected school board and appoint a superintendent following a TEA investigation into the board’s governance and repeatedly poor academic performance ratings at Wheatley High School. However, HISD lawyers filed a complaint against the TEA, and Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued an injunction that prohibited Morath from taking control of the district. On Jan. 13, 2023, the Texas Supreme Court ruled state law allows the TEA to take control of the district, ending the injunction.
HISD is the largest district in Texas and the eighth-largest district in the country, with an estimated student population of 200,000. There are 276 schools in the district, including Phillis Wheatley High School, the school Morath identified in his letter as having had several years of poor academic performance. In 2022, Wheatley received its first passing grade in eight years.
State takeovers of schools or districts are relatively uncommon, though many states have laws allowing for such takeovers. In a 2016 report for The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), political scientist Ashley Jochim writes that “rationales for state involvement in local public school systems have evolved over time but they have almost always been reserved for schools and districts with a consistent record of poor performance — a measure of last resort.”
Jochim’s report found that 35 states had laws permitting the state to take over districts or schools. The first time a state assumed control of a school district was in 1989, when New Jersey took over Jersey City Public Schools following years of poor student performance and increasingly dilapidated buildings. Although the state had relinquished much of its control of the district by 2008, it wasn’t until 2022 when the takeover formally ended.
New Jersey also assumed control of districts in Newark and Paterson in the early 1990s.
Other prominent examples of state takeovers include Pennsylvania’s takeover of the Philadelphia school system in 2001 and the Massachusetts Department of Education’s takeover of Lawrence Public Schools in 2011.
HISD isn’t the first district the TEA has taken over, but it is the largest. In the past 30 years, TEA has taken control of 15 other districts.
Morath said House Bill 1842, which Abbott signed into law in 2015, requires him to take over districts whose schools receive failing grades for five consecutive years. Three Republicans and two Democrats authored HB 1842, including state Rep. Harold Dutton (D), who defended the TEA’s takeover of HISD in a Houston Chronicle op-ed on March 13. Dutton wrote, “When a student fails once, there are consequences. When a district fails at least five consecutive times, there should also be consequences.”
Morath said the new Board of Managers and superintendent would not take over before June 1. The elected Board of Trustees will serve in an advisory capacity, and elections will still take place. The appointed board will serve for two years. At that time, Morath will need to announce a timeline for returning control back to the Board of Trustees or extend the state takeover for an additional two years.
The TEA is accepting applications for the Board of Managers from Houston residents through April 6.
Morath listed three conditions the district would have to meet for the state to return control to an elected board:
No school receives Ds or Fs for multiple years.
The district’s special education program complies with state and federal laws.
The board demonstrates a focus on improving student outcomes.
The takeover has fueled disagreement since Morath announced his intention to remove the elected board in 2019. Gov. Abbott, who backed Morath’s decision from the beginning, said, “There has been a longtime failure by HISD and the victims of the failure are the students.”
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D), who represents Texas’ 18th Congressional District — which includes parts of Houston — and formerly served on the Houston City Council, called on the U.S. Department of Education to launch a civil rights investigation into the takeover. The ACLU of Texas tweeted: “The state takeover of HISD is not about public education — it’s about political control of a 90 percent Black and brown student body in one of the country’s most diverse cities.” The organization went on to say HISD needed more resources, not dictates from officeholders in other cities.
Reaction among the Board of Trustees has also been polarized. Board President Daniela Hernandez, who was elected in 2020, said, “I believe in the democratically elected board. I ran for this position. I think that community voice is very important for local school districts. HISD is a local school district, and we need to do everything that we can to keep it in local control.” Kendall Baker, who was elected in 2021, said, “I have full confidence that Mike Morath will do everything possible to help parents, teachers, taxpayers, and students. Exterminate the place, find the bodies, and head over back to us.”
The Indiana State Legislature referred a constitutional amendment to the Nov. 2024 ballot that would remove the superintendent of public instruction from the gubernatorial line of succession.
The elected position was abolished in 2021 and replaced by the secretary of education, a position appointed by the governor.
Currently, in Indiana, if the governor becomes incapacitated, then the lieutenant governor of Indiana becomes acting governor until his or her recovery. If the governor resigns, dies, or is impeached, tried, and convicted, then the lieutenant governor becomes governor. If the governor and lieutenant governor both vacate their offices, the state legislature must meet within 48 hours and elect an acting governor, who must belong to the same party as the previous governor, by a simple majority in each chamber. Until then, the acting governor and acting lieutenant governor shall be, in order of succession:
1: the President Pro Tem of the Senate;
2: the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
3: the State Treasurer;
4: the State Auditor;
5: the Secretary of State; and
6: the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Sen. Jeff Raatz (R), who sponsored the amendment in the state Senate, said, “The superintendent of public instruction is sixth in line to take over as the governor of Indiana if the elected governor and lieutenant governor vacate their roles; however, this position was added to the line of succession when it was an elected position. Now, [the] secretary of education is a governor-appointed position. Because it is no longer an elected position, I believe it is wise to remove the position from the line of succession to make sure that only an elected official can become governor.”
To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a simple majority vote is required in both the Indiana State Senate and the Indiana House of Representatives in two successive legislative sessions.
The constitutional amendment was first introduced in the 2022 legislative session as House Joint Resolution 3. It was passed in the House by a vote of 87-6 and in the Senate by a vote of 46-1.
The amendment was passed again during the 2023 legislative session as House Joint Resolution 1. It was passed in the House on Jan. 31, 2023, in a vote of 99-0 and in the Senate on March 16, 2023, in a vote of 47-0 with three members absent.
Since 1996, the Indiana State Legislature has referred twelve constitutional amendments to the statewide ballot, all of which were approved by voters. The measures appeared on the ballot in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2010, 2016, and, most recently, in 2018.
The North Dakota State Legislature passed a bill, Senate Bill 2163 (SB 2163), to require the language that voters see on a ballot for a statewide measure to be written in “plain, clear, understandable language using words with common, everyday meaning.” Gov. Doug Burgum (R) signed SB 2163 on March 23. In North Dakota, the secretary of state, in consultation with the attorney general, is responsible for writing the ballot language.
State Rep. Jorin Johnson (R-41) said, “Plain language is a way of writing that uses smaller words and shorter sentences. This helps people understand the main ideas more clearly without inflated vocabulary and convoluted sentence construction.”
State Sen. Judy Lee (R-13), who voted against the bill, said, “As one of our people who testified said, ’It’s a noble goal, but ‘readable’ is in the eye of the beholder.’ … There are no definitions for some of the words used in the bill like ‘common everyday meaning’… It’s just extremely hard to define.” In the House, the vote was 84-9. In the Senate, the vote was 27-20.
Since 2017, Ballotpedia has scored the ballot questions of the eight statewide measures on the ballot in North Dakota using a formula called the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), which is a score equivalent to the estimated number of years of U.S. education required to understand a text. Scores ranged from 11 to 21, with an average score of 16. Sixteen is equivalent to a four-year college education in the U.S. The average score between 2017 and 2022 for state ballot measures across the U.S. was 18.
SB 2163 is the 10th ballot measure law change that Ballotpedia has tracked in 2023. Earlier in March, Arkansas increased the distribution requirement for initiative petition signatures and South Dakota moved the deadline for signatures after a court struck down the previous deadline. At least 280 bills regarding ballot measures or recall policies have been introduced during the 2023 legislative session as of March 24.
The North Dakota State Legislature referred a constitutional amendment to the Nov. 2024 ballot that would change the language used in the state constitution to describe certain state institutions.
Under the amendment, the following institutions would be renamed:
the State School for the Deaf and Dumb in Devils Lake would become the state School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing;
the State Hospital for the Insane in Jamestown would become the State Hospital for the Care of Individuals with Mental Illness; and
the Institution for the Feeble-Minded in Grafton would become “a facility for individuals with developmental disabilities.”
State Rep. Kathy Frelich (R), who works at the school for the deaf in Devils Lake, sponsored the amendment. Frelich said, “At one time, ‘dumb’ may have referred to someone who was mute. But this is not what we think of now when we use that term.”
To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a simple majority vote is required in both the North Dakota State Senate and the North Dakota House of Representatives. The amendment, Senate Concurrent Resolution 4001, was approved unanimously in the Senate on Jan. 17 and unanimously in the House on March 22.
From 1996 through 2022, the state legislature referred 37 constitutional amendments to the ballot. Voters approved 24 and rejected 13 of the referred amendments. The average number of amendments appearing on the ballot was about three. The approval rate of referred amendments at the ballot box was 64.9% from 1996 through 2022. The rejection rate was 35.1%.
As of March 22, 20 statewide ballot measures have been certified for the ballot in 10 states for elections in 2024.
From 2010 to 2022, the average number of statewide ballot measures in an even-numbered year was 161.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed Senate Bill 31, a bill to establish a new state flag, on March 21, 2023. The new flag will go into effect on March 9, 2024.
The current state flag, which was adopted on March 9, 1911, will be referred to as the historic state flag.
Cox said, “As governor, I am proud to issue today an executive order requiring that the current state flag be flown at the Capitol at all times and at all state buildings on certain holidays and special occasions. I am further requesting that, during an upcoming session, the Legislature amend SB 31 to require the historic state flag be flown above the new state flag when the two flags are flown together. This will ensure that the historic flag will remain a symbol of our history and strength.”
The campaign 2023 Utah Flag Referendum filed a veto referendum targeting Senate Bill 31 on March 6, 2023. To put the measure on the 2024 ballot, signatures from 8% of active voters as of Jan. 2023 (134,298 valid signatures) are due on April 12, 2023. If enough signatures are submitted, the bill will be on hold and the question of whether or not to adopt a new state flag will be decided by voters on Nov. 5, 2024.
Chad Saunders, the lead sponsor of the referendum, said, “I feel that sometimes legislators stop listening to the citizens that voted them into office. I feel that happened with SB31. They made a mistake. We’re here to remind them of that.”
Four veto referendums have appeared on the ballot in Utah: two in 1954, one in 1975, and most recently in 2007. In all cases, the referendum efforts resulted in the targeted law being repealed.
In 2020, voters in Mississippi decided on a statewide ballot measure to select a new state flag. The measure was placed on the ballot by the Mississippi State Legislature. At the election on Nov. 3, 2020, Mississippi voters were shown a colored picture of the new proposed state flag, named the In God We Trust Flag. Voters approved adopting the new state flag.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) issued two executive orders from March 13-19. As of March 19, Hochul has issued nine executive orders in 2023 — five fewer than she did at this point a year ago.
Executive Order 27, where the governor declared a state disaster emergency for 37 counties affected by a winter storm.
Executive Order 3.18, where the governor extended a state disaster emergency due to gun violence.
Governors use executive orders to manage executive branch operations. During the week of March 13-19, the nation’s governors issued 25 executive orders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued the most with nine. Governors in 39 states issued the fewest with zero. Democratic governors issued 13 of the 25 orders, while Republican governors issued 12.
Hochul has served as governor since Aug. 24, 2021. She issued 64 executive orders in 2022 and 25 in 2021. Nationally, governors issued at least 1,559 executive orders in 2022. Governors have issued 345 executive orders in 2023. Republican governors issued 210, while Democratic governors issued 135. New York is a Democratic trifecta, meaning Democrats control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued nine executive orders from March 13-19. As of March 19, DeSantis has issued 58 executive orders in 2023 — 16 fewer than he did at this point a year ago. Three of nine executive orders are below:
Executive Order Number 23-54, where the governor assigned Brian Kramer as state attorney for the case involving Thomas Frank Clark in the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida.
Executive Order Number 23-55, where the governor extended the assignment of Susan Lopez as state attorney for the case against Daniel Michael Farris in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Florida.
Executive Order Number 23-58, where the governor amended Executive Order 22-148 to include a citation for failure to register a vehicle. He also reaffirmed the newly amended order.
Governors use executive orders to manage executive branch operations. During the week of March 13-19, the nation’s governors issued 25 executive orders. DeSantis issued the most with nine. Governors in 39 states issued the fewest with zero. Democratic governors issued 13 of the 25 orders, while Republican governors issued 12.
DeSantis has served as governor since Jan. 8, 2019. He issued 272 executive orders in 2022 and 246 in 2021. Nationally, governors issued at least 1,559 executive orders in 2022. Governors have issued 345 executive orders in 2023. Republican governors issued 210, while Democratic governors issued 135. Florida is a Republican trifecta, meaning Republicans control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) issued two executive orders from March 13-19. As of March 19, Cooper has issued five executive orders in 2023 — seven fewer than he did at this point a year ago.
Executive Order No. 278, where the governor directed and authorized the director of the Office of State Human Resources to emphasize in job postings that experience can replace formal education.
Executive Order No. 279, where the governor directed the North Carolina Department of Public Safety to establish the North Carolina Office of Violence Prevention.
Governors use executive orders to manage executive branch operations. During the week of March 13-19, the nation’s governors issued 25 executive orders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued the most with nine. Governors in 39 states issued the fewest with zero. Democratic governors issued 13 of the 25 orders, while Republican governors issued 12.
Cooper has served as governor since Jan. 1, 2017. He issued 31 executive orders in 2022 and 58 in 2021. Nationally, governors issued at least 1,559 executive orders in 2022. Governors have issued 345 executive orders in 2023. Republican governors issued 210, while Democratic governors issued 135. North Carolina is a divided government, meaning neither party holds trifecta control.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) issued one executive order from March 13-19. As of March 19, Grisham has issued 38 executive orders in 2023 — 24 more than she did at this point a year ago.
Executive Order 2023-038, where the governor ordered flags to half-staff in memorial of former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah.
Governors use executive orders to manage executive branch operations. During the week of March 13-19, the nation’s governors issued 25 executive orders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued the most with nine. Governors in 39 states issued the fewest with zero. Democratic governors issued 13 of the 25 orders, while Republican governors issued 12.
Lujan Grisham has served as governor since Jan. 1, 2019. She issued 165 executive orders in 2022 and 68 in 2021. Nationally, governors issued at least 1,559 executive orders in 2022. Governors have issued 345 executive orders in 2023. Republican governors issued 210, while Democratic governors issued 135. New Mexico is a Democratic trifecta, meaning Democrats control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature.
